What would Constance Markievicz make of the position of women in the republic she helped win?
JAMES CONNOLLY was a feminist and he was the one who insisted that the 1916 Proclamation included women as well as men. When we read the proclamation today we can rightly ask ourselves the question: what happened to the aspired Irish Republic that “guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens… cherishing all the children of the nation equally”?
Even though a great number of women played an integral role in the 1916 Rising, they never got the recognition they deserved for the part they played. This is evidenced in the reality that far too many of the women who fought alongside their fellow men were denied pensions after the War of Independence, and were not celebrated as heroes as their male counterparts were. It has taken 100 years to acknowledge and validate the role women played in 1916.
